Meeting Valentin Montanet and tasting his wines, you can’t help but feel you’ve come across one of the freest vignerons in Burgundy. This is largely down to the fact that his home appellation of Vézelay is a blank slate, unburdened by the steep expectations and land prices you might encounter in the hallowed Côte d’Or villages like Volnay or Nuits-Saint-Georges. Even though wine has been made in this outer orbit of Burgundy for centuries, Vézelay was knocked down by phylloxera near the end of the 19th century and stayed down for much of the 20th century. It didn’t really make a comeback until the 1980s, when Yonne Département native and chef of the Vézelay restaurant L’Espérance, Marc Meneau, grew inspired to serve hyper local whites that could live up to his three Michelin star cuisine. He enlisted none other than Valentin’s father, Jean, and Chablis’s Bernard Raveneau to make this happen.     
     While the veteran Bernard mentored Jean, a Normandy-born generalist farmer up until that point, in the art of mineral and chiseled Chardonnay, and introduced him to Kermit, Jean simultaneously fell in with the members of the Morgon “Gang of Four,” whose reds were—and still are—among the most vibrant and joyous bottles we import. As a kid, Valentin and his dad often drove the five hours round trip to the Beaujolais to visit with these new friends. “I am a winemaker in Burgundy,” Valentin says, “but my heart also beats for the Beaujolais. Villié-Morgon is my second home.”     
     It’s no surprise, then, that the Montanets’ Domaine de La Cadette produces whites inspired by the Raveneaus’ classic Chablisien approach to Chardonnay, and Pinot Noirs and Gamays that teem with the joie de vivre, high-toned fruit, and refreshment you find in the best reds from the Beaujolais. I can’t think of any other producer whose wines embody both schools in such an exciting—and delicious—way.